Sitting Quietly, Doing Something – Happy Days Blog – NYTimes.com

Jon Kabat-Zinn, …, taught mindfulness at a high-stress biotech company; these beginners meditated for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks. [Professor] Davidson’s measures showed that after the eight weeks they had begun to activate that left prefrontal zone more strongly — and were saying that instead of feeling overwhelmed and hassled, they were enjoying their work. So while the Calvinist strain in American culture may look askance at someone sitting quietly in meditation, this kind of “doing nothing” seems to do something remarkable after all.

Of course, there’s no guarantee of greater happiness from meditation, but the East has given us a promising path for its pursuit.